Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Through to the Mastermind semis

Another series of exciting quarterfinal group contests brought the opening stage of the SEQC Mastermind to a close on Sunday, October 25. Though none of the contests had the close finish of the first day, this set did bring another upset. Rajiv D'Silva's partner in quizzing, Harsh Bhatkuly lost out to Amit Shet, who blitzed his specialised subject round on 'Cricketing Career of Sachin Tendulkar'.

Perhaps there's a jinx on all those who have been involved in setting questions for this Mastermind series -- Annie wasn't participating anyway, and the other two (Rajiv and Harsh) have been eliminated. Doesn't bode well for Vidyadhar Gadgil, who made the mistake of setting a couple of specialised rounds for the second day. He may be through to the semis, but is he going to make the finals?

This time around, too, one of our young guns deserves a special mention. Jatan Rodrigues, our second youngest contestant, scored a remarkable 12 points in his specialised subject round on James Bond Films, and must have given the fancied Vivek Krishnan quite a scare for a while.

What a diverse, and sometimes esoteric, range of specialised subjects have been tackled in the opening rounds. 'Architectural Heritage of Goa', 'Violins and Violinists', 'Nobel Prizes in Physiology and Medicine', 'Advertising Agencies in India', 'Life and Times of Metallica' ... It goes to show what an eclectic group our club is, and yet there's so much harmony and camaraderie. Let's see what outre topics the semi-finals throw up.

The nine semi-finalists have been identified. They will now be divided -- by some arcane system to which only Annie is privy -- into three groups of three, and do battle some time in December for the three spots in the finals. There are plans to ramp up the hoopla surrounding SEQC Mastermind in the next stages. Keep your eyes peeled.

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Welcome to the blog of the Sunday Evening Quiz Club! SEQC (pronounced 'sexy'!) consists of a motley group of quizzing enthusiasts based in Goa that meet at least twice a month to quiz. If you live in Goa or are even just passing through on the first Sunday or the last Sunday of the month, come join us!